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London's Heathrow Airport has apologised for its duty-free stores requiring Chinese shoppers to spend a higher amount than other travellers to get discount vouchers.

A Chinese student who worked as a part-time salesman at the airport's World Duty Free shop revealed on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, that Chinese travellers need to spend £1,000 (US$1,400) to receive a 20 percent discount the next time they shop at the store. However, shoppers of other nationalities are required to spend only £79 (US$109) to receive the same offer.

The post, which has been viewed more than 10 million times, has stirred outrage on Chinese social media, reports Chinese news portal Huanqiu.

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World Duty Free issued an official statement in the early hours of Monday through its Weibo account. Weibo

In response to the incident, World Duty Free issued an official statement in the early hours of Monday on its Weibo account. The statement triggered a backlash on social media, as most netizens believe the statement lacks sincerity and is full of nonsense.

Today, the shop posted another statement on Weibo without mentioning its unbalanced voucher pricing system. “As a global company we are committed to treating all our customers with respect and in a consistent and fair way. We would like to offer our sincere apologies to our customers who were in any way made to feel this was not the case,” it remarked.

Heathrow Airport itself also apologised on Monday through its Weibo and Twitter accounts, saying that the retailer now "offers the same benefits for travellers to all destinations".

The anger felt by Chinese customers appears hard to appease. Since the revelation, more and more Chinese customers have been sharing their unfair experiences when shopping abroad. "Imagine if this was another race, this incident would have already been a huge talking point," reads a comment on Weibo which has received more than 10,000 likes.

According to a report by The Independent, a British newspaper, Chinese tourists splashed out £29m (US$40m) in the UK during China’s national Golden Week holiday (October 1 to 7) in 2017.

The number of Chinese visiting the UK increased by 33 percent in 2017. Collectively, they spent £667m (US$923m), according to UK tourism authority VisitBritain.